


oubliette

by kathleenfergie



Category: Labyrinth, Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/M, Runners, Sadness, wished aways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 10:22:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathleenfergie/pseuds/kathleenfergie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She found solace in the cold, damp, stone walls, the sound of dripping water and a breeze through leaves never leaving the air. Sarah had lived a life of lies and children that were never her own, and it saddened her. Jareth slowly watched his Queen slip into madness right before his eyes, and all he could do was hold her as the darkness took over her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oubliette

**Author's Note:**

> Okay kids, this is a sad one tonight. This is Sarah's life if she had become Jareth's Queen, and it isn't the greatest. Enjoy.
> 
> Jim Henson and co. own this.

It was seldom that Sarah ever saw a runner make it past the oubliette, or come anywhere near the four guards. Jareth would sit in his throne, gazing into crystals that followed the runner's every move. All the while Sarah perched on a windowsill of the throne room, the wished-away on her lap. She loved to bounce the babes, often singing old Celtic tunes she'd learned in the Above to them. Amidst all this, Jareth would often get up and kick his goblins across the room in fits of anger. Their screechs of delight annoyed the Queen, her gaze on the never ending Labyrinth. The ticking of the thirteen hour clock rang throughout the castle as an omen of the runner's fate.

When a runner did happen to pass the oubliette's darkness, Sarah saw a side of her husband she'd come to detest; he went from simply watching and waiting for failure to sabotage. It was unlike the harmless fun he'd had with her all those years ago (discounting the fierys and the cleaners), he would throw the runner obstacles that were seemingly impossible to overcome. Standing in an imposing manner on an adjacent windowsill to Sarah, Jareth hurled crystals toward his labyrinth below. If the runner showed much progress, he would leap into the air and become his snowy barn owl self. Sarah watched him soar over the stony vastness with a pang in her heart. 

Only once during her marriage was there ever a runner to cause Jareth's most feared phrase.

"Prepare the Escher room."

In the early years of Sarah's transformation, Jareth explained the consequences that would have occurred had she refused his hand. Sarah was glad she had not caused the demolition of her husband's kingdom. Sometimes if she looked closely at the stones in the walls or under her feet she could see faint iridescent lines, what she understood to be the original magic of the labyrinth that held the fabric of its realm intact. Sarah wondered if it was the same magic ran throughout Jareth. She could feel it when he ran his fingers across her shoulders, his fingertips leaving behind an extraordinary tingle.

If this child were to beat her husband's labyrinth, Jareth was tasked with making the runner a grand offer - far grander than a dream crystal. She was unsure if this child would usurp her, but she held faith that Jareth would do everything in his power to do otherwise.

The Queen knew for a fact that she'd been the only one in the history of the game to win, let alone reach the surreal room of topsy turvy staircases. To prepare the Escher room involved abandoning the child within its depths, its whims luring the child farther and farther away from the runner. The four year old in question was intelligent at his young age; Sarah could sense he feared the room, unlike Toby who had been in awe of its magic. He clutched onto the Queen, and as it was her duty, she forced herself to disappear, the room fueling her lack of magic. She watched from a hiding place as the boy sobbed, wandering around the confusing archways.

She sympathized with the boy, memories of her own quest through the room flooding her mind. Some days she could still summon the panic she felt, Jareth's crooning voice clouding her brain. 

I move the stars for no one.

This runner, however, did not share the same fate as Sarah. 

~

As the years went by, Sarah took on the task of delivering wished aways to their adoptive families. She never had to approach the feys in question, she only had to hand the child off to a couple of smarter goblins who would do the job themselves. Originally it had been her, for a brief period after her transformation, but after one episode she vowed never again.

Seeing a child wail and scream for its mother for hours put her off the task and to this day she could not get the babe's cries out her head. After that particular event Sarah create a way for her to remember the children who passed through her realm other than forcing them to remain in her psyche, creating night terrors far greater than she'd ever known. 

The Queen had the goblin scholars fashion her a giant tome with blank pages in which she could record the names of each wished away, their forgotten history resting in the castle's private library. Each name held another life and if Sarah ran her hands across the dried ink it was almost as if she could feel how the Above had forgotten them. It felt like the only way she could atone for and absolve her sins. Sarah saw herself as Jareth's accomplice in all their trials against the Above.

Regardless of her many years Underground, Sarah could not quite forget her upbringing and she could almost imagine her father's chastising voice after all the centuries away from him. She knew that time moved much slower for the mortal world than for her, and so she wondered how old he was. She imagined Toby with a brood of other siblings, some sharing her father's attributes instead of Toby's blond crown. She liked to believe that that was his special trait (and she knew Jareth saw the boy as a reflection of himself) and it would be odd to imagine other siblings with those features.

She had not seen her brother since that fateful night, and so many of her thoughts were about his well being. She missed him.

~

When Sarah failed to carry her children to term she missed her brother the most. While the Queen had conceived a handful of Jareth's children, all of the pregnancies only lasted for a few months before the inevitable miscarriages plagued her. She would wake with excruciating abdominal pain, swathed in a sea of her own blood, and her only memories of those events involved her pained screams as Jareth rushed her to the High Court's healer. 

Her years of having the inability to hold her own children brought back memories of the nights Sarah would bounce a sobbing Toby on her hip, reluctantly telling him tales of other worlds until his cries fell silent. She realized that, even then, she loved him. She loved her baby brother (who was now most likely a man) more than she could express, and somehow that concerned her husband. Sarah knew of their close bond that formed during her run, that her husband had renamed Toby to be his heir, and that if all else failed, he would be brought from the Above to take Jareth's place when it was time. 

She did not wish the Goblin Throne on anyone, least of all her brother, and so she would never let loose how her son came to be, not even to Jareth. A baby with dark hair and strong eyes, he was all that Sarah needed to keep her brother safe in the Above. He'd come to the castle as a wished away during her acting reign. His sibling had kept true, choosing to leave the child in exchange for his dreams, which Sarah gave him willingly. After first laying eyes on him, Sarah had felt her body claim the boy, the primal feeling overwhelming her. Jareth had been away, battling the outer kingdoms who wanted to knock down the Goblin barriers. 

The King came home to find his Queen resting on the throne, a sleeping babe in her arms. 

Jareth questioned nothing. He did not know the true history of his child, and Sarah would kill before letting him discover it. He would destroy her, no doubt.

After many years, a realization dawned on Sarah. 

She lived a live of lies and children that were never hers. The thought would torture her for the years to come as she watched Jareth sing lullabies to the wished aways.

There were flickers of happiness whenever she would spend time with her husband, but as time led on, it was never enough. She would look upon her young son as he galivanted about with the goblins, dancing and singing in his soft boy soprano timbre, and she would wish to lay down and weep. Jareth would make love to her, whispering endearments in her collarbones, and she would become am empty shell, her mind returning to the night she stood sobbing on the highest turret. 

Sarah knew the constant sadness that clouded her every moment would remain until her end, always lurking in the back of her mind, waiting for the chance to consume her entirely. She could only wait until then, for the moment simply fearing the oubliette her mind had become. 

Jareth watched in horror as his Queen slipped deeper into madness.


End file.
